Fire burning in Yellowstone Park in 1988
NPS Photo
During the summer of 1988, crown fires roared through Yellowstone National Park, burning hundreds of thousands of acres of lodgepole pine forests. The summer of 1988 was the driest in Yellowstone’s recorded history. It was also one of the windiest. Although over 10,000 firefighters were dispatched, autumn’s rains and snows finally extinguished the inferno.
The lodgepole pine forests of Rocky Mountain National Park are very similar to those in Yellowstone. Because of past fire suppression, the park’s forests are also ready for a major conflagration during a severe drought.